Everyone has been wondering which players will be cut by their teams using the amnesty clause in the new collective bargaining agreement. Each team can cut one player currently under contract and have that player’s salary vanish from its salary-cap number. Teams will be able to use amnesty once over the course of the new collective bargaining agreement. There are sure to be some surprise cuts by teams looking to save a few bucks on a bad contract hanging over their heads.
But Brandon Roy a bad contract? Sure he makes $15 million but he’s the franchise guy that Portland has built around for the past few years. Shouldn’t they at least make every effort to rehab Roy’s knees before throwing him to the curb? The Oregonian had these quotes on the Roy situation:
“Brandon’s out,” a league executive told me Monday. “Don’t know the exact details, but everyone around the league knows it’s way, way done. Paul and Bert (Kolde) are calling the shots on this one.”
If you wondered who would follow Kevin Pritchard and succeed Rich Cho in the cursed Portland GM seat, we apparently have a two-headed solution. And so it appears that the Blazers new brain trust – Allen and his childhood pal – is ready to make the first basketball mistake of this “BFF” era.
Cut Roy?
If he can’t play anymore, sure. Makes total sense. The guy makes $15 million a year. Lots of back-to-backs in a shortened season. But there’s no sense in flushing the three-time All Star before you’ve taken a long look at him in training camp, watched him run, and gauged whether a long offseason has been good to his knees. Maybe even seen him in a scrimmage.